Can Breast Cancer and Colon Cancer Risk Be Reduced By Choosing Heart Healthy Anti-Cancer Mediterranean Foods?
Research suggests that food choices do make a difference and may lower cancer risk.
The Super Healthy Mediterranean Diet is filled with cancer fighting foods. It is primarily a plant based high fiber diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fermented foods and healthy fats and oils from olives and nuts such as almonds and walnuts, It is high in antioxidants from a wide variety of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables, including the longevity promoting phytochemical resveratrol found in red and purple grapes and red wine. The Mediterranean Diet is low in red meat and poultry. Instead there is an emphasis on fresh fish and legumes, free range eggs, hormone free yoghurt and feta cheese. A major study from the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the Mediterranean diet makes your blood vessels, brain and heart less prone to developing plaque, stroke and heart attack and keeps your cholesterol levels healthy.
According to the American Institute for Cancer Research and Nutrition Adviser Karen Collins, MS, RD, CDN, the Mediterranean Diet is also a Cancer Prevention Diet. Collins states that
“Some research has suggested that following the Mediterranean Diet can reduce cancer mortality and incidence.Research does link the Mediterranean diet with reductions in markers of inflammation, and combined with the abundance of antioxidant, cancer-fighting phytochemicals in the Mediterranean diet, this is an eating pattern that fits well in the overall model of a diet to lower cancer risk “
The authors of another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed over 14,000 women for almost 10 years state
“We have found evidence that conformity to the traditional Mediterranean diet may be associated with lower breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women and could explain, in part, the lower incidence of this disease in Mediterranean countries…Overall, approximately 10% of breast cancer cases…could be avoided if all women shifted their diet toward one adhering more closely to the Mediterranean dietary pattern.”
The Importance of Diet After Menopause: Additionally, because many breast cancer , uterine, cervical and ovarian cancer patients may go through early menopause, a diet that reduces hot flashes is important. Research suggests that post menopausal women who eat a Mediterranean Diet not only had a lower risk of breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence but also suffered less hot flashes associated with menopause.
You can learn more about traditional diets, including the Mediterranean Diet at Old Ways: Health Through Heritage
Image Credit : www.oldwayspt.org
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